New begginings

21.8.2012

More goat kids have arrived and I am now at that difficult time of year training the kids to bottle feed at regular intervals. It is hard work, but at least the sun is now shining and the mud has dried a bit. This winter must be a record for continual rain. We have even had a spring bubble up from the ground in the gravel pit paddock. I have enjoyed the spring, but the gully by the top gate is eroding fast and clambering down and up the other side is getting daily more challenging. There is a small bridge of soil left at a crossable level but the creek flows over it, and soon it will fall right in. I hope no one is standing on it when it goes!

We moved the last of Al’s things from his rented house at the weekend and he is now totally living in “The Crumble”. We had to clean out the old place in case Larry does not get round to demolishing it straight away and needs to rent it again. He plans to do a new building on the site but needs to sell all the units before he can start. Al is having a house warming party this weekend and luckily Maureen put the bowls I had made for him in the kiln last week to glaze, so I have a house-warming gift all prepared.

Another cycle has ended favourably in that we were awarded the community grants we have applied for. My next-door neighbour, Eva, did most of the application writing and the rest of us endured six months of meetings to get the information we needed sorted. I think the real gain is finding out the diversity of talent and skills in our community that we can tap on if we really get together. We have links to different political parties too, which all helps.

There is a visible sign of the earlier money the community got in the walking trail that is snaking it’s way towards us from Yarra Glen. It is an expensive undertaking but will provide long-term benefits. 

Our kids could ride horses or bikes to school but now the traffic is less educated and the road is much more dangerous. Gradually homeowners have taken possession of the road reserve outside their properties and planted trees or lawns. This has meant that it was getting hard to ride or walk off the road.  It will be a good thing to preserve the right to do walk in safety for the future.

We are all very grateful for these grants and structures, but we do keep reminding anyone who will listen that so far there has been no real progress to make our lives safer. We are once again going to start another fire season and very little has changed from the conditions that resulted in so many deaths in the last fire. We asked for effective warnings, shelters and that sort of thing but everyone seems afraid of being sued if things went wrong. It does not look too hard to me to set up the Yarra Glen racecourse as a fire haven and even large pipes buried carrying the path over creeks could save life in emergencies. Basically, we all have to plan our own survival methods and put in what ever we feel we need. We have done this by building a cave like house in front of a large dam and I am really glad that we put in this extra effort.